The Mekong Memo: Cambodia

Cambodia 20260608

August Whitcraft — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 02:48:02 GMT

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Phnom Penh Drags Bangkok to The Hague's Cousin

Hun Manet delivered notice of UNCLOS compulsory conciliation on June 2, sending a message to both Bangkok and the UN Secretary-General about the 26,000-square-kilometer Overlapping Claims Area in the Gulf of Thailand, a patch of seabed thought to hold up to $300 billion worth of oil and natural gas. The notice arrives shortly after Thailand tore up the 2001 MoU that had at least in theory kept the two sides talking, and it sets a 21-day timer on Bangkok to get it’s its own conciliators appointed or get the UN do it for them. Phnom Penh has already arranged its team, which is headed by Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the Danish diplomat who chaired the only previous use of this mechanism (the Australia-Timor-Leste commission that finished in 2018), and includes French ICJ veteran Jean-Marc Thouvenin, with Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as Cambodia’s agent.

Read more: Khaosod English (Hun Manet framing), The Diplomat (conciliation mechanism), Ny1 (Anutin), CamboJA News ($300B reserves)

Petrol, Matches, and 1,181 Steps

Thai soldiers got their photos taken as they poured gasoline on a 325-meter wooden staircase leading to K'nar Temple before setting it on fire, destroying a 1,181-step access route that Cambodia built in 2017. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts also accused Thai forces of pulling down Hindu icons and swapping in Buddha statues in temples that it took control of in last year's border fighting. Thailand reportedly went even further by opening Ta Krabey to ticketed public visits and religious ceremonies over this past weekend which Phnom Penh said was not acceptable under the Franco-Siamese Treaties of 1904 and 1907. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told The Times that Bangkok was trying to manufacture a "fait accompli."

Read more: The Star (staircase), The Times (casualty & displacement), Khmer Times (international forums)

Open Skies, Open Wallet, Open Embassy

After 12 years of stop-start talks, the US and Cambodia closed an Open Skies Agreement during Deputy Assistant Secretary Hunt VanderToll's visit to Phnom Penh last Friday, clearing the way for direct commercial flights for the first time. The trip also brought a $100 million DFC financing commitment for Techo International Airport, routed through Canadia Group's OCIC after more than two years of due diligence work. The airport money still has to get congressional notification done before it can properly close, so keep that in mind before you break out the confetti. The White House also put forward Wisconsin's Christopher Anderson as nominee for the role of ambassador, filling a post empty since Patrick Murphy left in mid-2024.

Read more: Khmer Times (Boeing deal), Cambodianess (ceasefire), Khmer Times (VanderToll meetings), CamboJA News (Walker interim tenure), Cambodia Investment Review (OCIC due diligence)

Forced Labor, Forced Tariff

Cambodian exports will get an extra 10% US tariff under a June 2 USTR proposal targeting countries that fail to ban goods made with forced labor. Cambodia is one of 54 economies that the US claims does not have an effective legal prohibition, but its reciprocal trade commitments with Washington spared it the steeper 12.5% tier that’s been reserved for countries with who have neither measures nor commitments in place. Garments, footwear and travel goods, the backbone of Cambodian export revenues, are in the crosshairs. Written comments are due in about a month and public hearings will begin July 7. The Labor Ministry waved it off, saying there are no forced labor issues in Cambodia.

Read more: Khmer Times (analyst), Cambodianess (tariff)

From Wats to Vodka, Siem Reap Courting Moscow

International arrivals fell 46% in early 2026, with 1.01 million visitors in the first four months and ticket sales to Angkor Archaeological Park down 31.8% through May. The collapse has been seen from every major source market. Chinese and Vietnamese tourists, who together used to make up more than a third of arrivals, have largely stopped coming after trafficking cases tied to scam compounds poisoned the country's reputation in both Beijing and Hanoi. As part of work to stem the tide and resuscitate the moribund arrival figures, Lotus Group CEO Vladimir Palancica brought the first delegation of Russian tour operators to Siem Reap this week. He, and the group, were welcomed by State Secretary Neang Mao on behalf of Tourism Minister Huot Hak. The pitch leans on "high-yield" Russian visitors who typically stay five to seven days.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (airline adjustments), Travel and Tour World (luxury product pitch), Cambodia Investment Review (BRICS House launch)

Photo by allPhoto Bangkok on Unsplash

Hobson Offers Three Hundred Dollars a Hectare

Nearly 700 families in Preah Vihear met authorities and company reps Thursday over land disputes that go back to a nearly 6,000-hectare concession granted in 2012. China Great Cause moved onto farms in 2025 and cleared crops without notice, then offered $300 per hectare to residents who had worked the land for years. Global Green, tied to U.S.-sanctioned tycoon Try Pheap, did the same to cashew and cassava plots cultivated for decades, paying one farmer $3,987 for two hectares of cashew plantation to make way for a mining project. When one resident asked what he was supposed to do without his nine hectares, provincial officials suggested he could go work for the company that took them.

Read more: CamboJA News

Roofs for the Living, Ranks for the Dead

Hun Manet's government has handed out two very different forms of post-war relief. More than 11,600 people displaced from Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear have moved into government-built stilt homes with power and piped water, finished in March, but the new settlements offer little beyond shelter from the worst of the elements. Sok Horn, 62, who once ran a clothing shop in Boeung Trakuon, says customers are scarce because "they are all displaced people, and there is not much money." Her son Hour Kimhak, who used to make about $700 a month from a mobile phone shop before the fighting destroyed it, has no capital to start again and has struggled to find work. A decision Hun Manet signed in March and made public on June 3 gives Second Lieutenant commissions to 41 relatives of soldiers killed or seriously wounded. The promotions are being seen as a gesture to families of those lost in the 2025 border dispute, though the document isn’t explicit about that.

Read more: CamboJA News ($75 household aid), Cambodia Daily (Second Lieutenant appointments)

Seven Hundred Days and Counting

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals postponed the appeals hearing for all 10 Mother Nature Cambodia convicts on June 2 and hasn’t set any new date yet. The five who are serving, including Yim Leanghy, who was given eight years for plotting against the government and insulting the king, are 700 days into terms of six to eight years. They are scattered between prisons hundreds of kilometers from their families and lawyers. Seventy-three civil society groups, from LICADHO and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have signed an open letter to Hun Manet this month asking him to reverse the convictions before the Francophonie Summit arrives in Phnom Penh later this year.

Kith Meng's House, Kith Meng's Rules

Seven international chambers, including AmCham, EuroCham, and BritCham, brought 24 reform proposals to a CDC-hosted breakfast on June 4, and not a single one got any real opposition. Before the day was out, the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce had fired off a formal letter to Deputy PM Sun Chanthol defending its role as G-PSF Secretariat and warning that "no individual business association should bypass established mechanisms." The letter was signed by Kith Meng, who is also the chair of the G-PSF's Coordinating Committee.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (24 reform proposals), Cambodia Investment Review (CCC rebuttal)

Paid in Full, Plot Unknown

About 30 buyers of the Borey Morn Dany housing project come together outside the Land Management Ministry last week, about five years after paying for villas and townhouses that remain unbuilt on undemarked land. Him Lina spent nearly five years working in Japan, saved close to $20,000, bought a villa in 2021, and still can't point to his own plot. The ministry has issued land titles, but they cover ownership only, and buyers say the missing boundary lines make the paper useless as bank collateral. After the meeting, officials told buyers to submit more documents and wait for a future sit-down with the developer.

Read more: CamboJA News

A Holiday in Search of a Reason

A May 21 sub-decree designates July 11 as "National Population Day," instructing government bodies to help the public "address demographic shifts" and build "population resilience and harmony." What that means in practice, nobody seems to know, but we can think of some risqué activities that might help stem the decline. The Ministry of Planning didn't respond to questions. A former ministry spokesperson said he had no information. A Royal Academy researcher said he had only recently seen the decree and also had no information.

Cambodia 20260601

August Whitcraft — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:22:14 GMT

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No Peace for the Emerald Triangle

A year after Cambodian and Thai troops first swapped lead in the Emerald Triangle on May 28, 2025, in action that killed a Cambodian service member and gutted what was meant to be a celebration of 75 years of diplomatic ties, Phnom Penh is using the anniversary to accuse Bangkok of taking territory under cover of the ceasefire. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told the UN Security Council on May 26 that Cambodia doesn’t recognize the "modification of the border by force or the creation of a de facto situation," before meeting with his Thai counterpart on the sidelines. Two rounds of fighting, the second in December which went on for more than three weeks, have knocked diplomatic relations down to second-secretary level. On May 28, Phnom Penh held a three-hour “Day of Reckoning” ceremony that pulled together Khmer Rouge remembrance, COVID-19 hardship stories and border-war footage to try and win hearts and minds. Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many was keen to remind everyone, however, that the event was "not intended to encourage Cambodian people to despise any nationality."

Read more: Cambodianess (investor confidence), Cambodia Daily (Sokhonn-Hossain meeting), Cambodianess (analyst voices), Cambodianess (Hun Many remarks)

Buddha Statues on Land, Gas Fields at Sea

Thailand has spent its time since the December 27 ceasefire doing things that don't look much like peacekeeping. There are now 36 Buddhist statues built in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces, two flagpoles planted in Preah Vihear, roads built, containers and barbed wire reinforced, and tourism activities running on what Phnom Penh claims is Cambodian territory. The Foreign Ministry's May 30 protest says all of this violates ceasefire points 2 and 3, which are supposed to require both sides to keep to their (then-)current positions and only use the existing border demarcation mechanisms. The same pressure campaign has also gone offshore, where Cambodia this month walked away from a 25-year joint exploration agreement over roughly 27,000 square kilometers of the Gulf of Thailand. The area is thought to hold up to 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly $300 billion in combined oil and gas reserves. Energy Minister Keo Rottanak says conciliation under UNCLOS is now the only realistic path forward.

Read more: Cambodianess (UN Security Council), Modern Diplomacy (TotalEnergies interest)

Sokha Walks, But Not Far

Kem Sokha left his Tuol Kork house at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, freed by a royal pardon that Acting Head of State Hun Sen signed May 25 on behalf of King Sihamoni, (abroad being treated for cancer). Even as he’s been able to get out from under house arrest, his lifetime ban on political activity has not been relaxed. Nor has his five-year travel ban. Sokha, 72, greeted officials, but declined interviews, and said he planned to enter monkhood to show gratitude to his 101-year-old mother. The U.S., EU, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada all welcomed the release, but most of them also suggested that “more” would be appropriate. The partial pardon is seen as mostly a play for Western goodwill, with Sokha visible enough to satisfy foreign critics but shackled enough to be no political threat. CPP spokesperson Chea Thirith said that the skeptics are "extremists."

Read more: CamboJA News (Western missions), CamboJA News (analyst dissent), Cambodia Daily (geopolitical motive), CamboJA News (Sokha's exit), Cambodia Daily (U.S. stance)

Hun Sen Shocked to Discover Scamming

About 300,000 foreign nationals have been arrested, deported, or have departed voluntarily under Cambodia's Anti-Telecom Fraud Law came into effect, Deputy PM Sar Sokha told Swiss Ambassador Pedro Zwahlen on Wednesday. Since January, the government also says that 91 casinos have been shut. Days earlier, Senate President Hun Sen told a Phnom Penh administration meeting he was "very surprised" to learn tens of thousands of scammers were operating in the country, even though the UN reported the figure to be about 100,000 way back in 2022. Since a May 22 sub-decree, senior police in Mondulkiri Province have been let go, and Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued an arrest warrant for a Banteay Meanchey provincial military police deputy chief of staff on charges of conspiracy in aggravated online fraud and money laundering.

Read more: CamboJA News (Hun Sen), Asia Gaming Brief (300K breakdown)

Cops Raid the Raid

More than 30 Kampot police and gendarmes, including a deputy provincial police commissioner, were arrested Wednesday after allegedly cutting the locks of a casino near the Prek Chak border crossing with Vietnam and “liberating” evidence that had been taken in an earlier anti-scam raid. The casino had already been raided for hosting scam operations. Provincial police chief Mao Chanmathurith confirmed the arrests but decided to say no more, even refusing to name the casino. The National Military Police spokesperson also passed on giving much commentary, offering only that prosecutors were “on the case.”

Read more: CamboJA News

Photo by v2osk on Unsplash

An Eviction Notice That Wasn't

A forged immigration document, complete with lifted signatures from GDI Director-General Som Sopheak and Interior Ministry Secretary of State Sar Sokha, tore through African social media last week claiming Ghanaians, Kenyans and others had until May 31 to leave or suffer two years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Several major African outlets ran it straight. Cambodia's Interior Ministry said the note was fabricated (Ghana's FM Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confirmed the same). Even though the document was fiction, the immigration waivers referenced in the fake notice are real instruments, used on workers with expired visas who had fled or been freed from scam compounds and needed time to arrange passage home. Ghana's High Commission in Malaysia, which handles Cambodia affairs, evacuated 85 Ghanaians between March and May, and 76 more are waiting on the next flight out.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (forged signatures), Cambodianess (19,000 expulsions), The Whistler (ministry), Modern Ghana, TVC News (76 pending evacuation)

Master 25's Ponzi Trail Leads to the Ministries

Leng Channa and two sidekicks have confessed to getting between $93 million and $98 million from a figure known only as "Master 25." They used the money to buy land and pay interest to earlier investors in what the Anti-Corruption Unit says was a Ponzi. About 5,000 victims were taken in by Brilliant City, whose CEO and two deputy CEOs were arrested in Siem Reap in March 2024 on charges of aggravated fraud and money laundering. The ACU has since begun investigations into Sean Borat, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, and Sar Thavy, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense. The PM has assigned Ky Tech, head of the government’s legal team, to look after victims' interests.

Bank Crisis or Challenge?

Cambodia's banking sector sanctioned and placed multiple financial institutions into liquidation over the past year. That’s the sort of news that often gets buried in otherwise reassuring press releases, but it’s not a good look. Total banking assets are $101.8 billion, the result of roughly 400 percent growth over the past decade, and the National Bank of Cambodia's prudential ratios still look fine on paper. The non-performing loan ratio is 3.7 percent, which should be manageable, even though that’s a historical high for Cambodia. The bank closures are doing reputational damage to be sure, the question is if this is "crisis or challenge?"

Read more: Khmer Times (NPL historical highs), Kiripost (3.7% NPL rate)

The Golden Emblem Opens Doors, Wallets

Susumu Tai, 73, Cambodia's honorary consul in Sendai, raked in more than 2 billion yen ($12.5M) from more than 20 Japanese companies for sham investment consulting, then returned most of it as kickbacks while skimming 10-20 percent as his “commission.” The Sendai Regional Taxation Bureau has charged him roughly 260 million yen in back taxes and penalties on some 370 million yen in unreported income; the companies that paid him face a dues of another 700 million yen or so. Tai's pitch was gentlemanly, and his business card carried the golden national emblem of Cambodia, and clients' confidence was fortified in January 2024 when Hun Manet appointed him a special adviser to the prime minister. When tax authorities came calling, Tai claimed diplomatic immunity, a privilege Japan (not unusually) does not extend to honorary consuls.

PTT's Cambodia Pumps Run Dry

PTT's OR unit has watched its Cambodian petrol station network shrivel from 200 to 91 since border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia began, and says that sales are off 50 or 60% from what they were a year ago. Forty or fifty of those lost stations didn't close so much as defect, switching to rival (non-Thai, natch) brands. Café Amazon locations saw a more modest reduction, from 150 outlets to 136. CFO Wilaiwan Kanjanakanti's silver lining is that the Cambodia apparently only accounts for 2-3% of the firm’s net profit.

Tuk-Tuks 1, EVs 0

Cambodia's transport ministry suspended WowNow's electric taxi fleet on Wednesday after tuk-tuk drivers complained the EV service had cut their daily earnings from $25 to $10. Left unmentioned in the ministry’s announcement was WowNow's previous tie-ups with Prince Bank and Prince Supermarket, both companies which were sanctioned by the US over alleged links to online scams, money laundering, and human trafficking under the Prince Group crackdown. WowNow itself hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, and Prince Group continues to deny the allegations. Dozens of suspended EV drivers petitioned the labor ministry the same day, and were asked to "remain silent" while negotiations are ongoing.

Read more: CamboJA News

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Cambodia 20260525

August Whitcraft — Mon, 25 May 2026 04:25:23 GMT

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Phnom Penh's Perfect Storm Cuts the Forecast

Stephen Higgins of Mekong Strategic Capital had been expecting 4% GDP growth for this year, but he now thinks 2% will be closer to the mark. The revision results partly from a policy dialogue hosted by Sok Siphana, where Higgins and Baker Tilly Cambodia's Tan Khee Meng walked through the intersection of the border dispute, the forced shutdown of scam compounds, energy market volatility, and a property sector that’s sitting on about a decades worth of unsold inventory. The last point is doing particular damage to the banks. Loans in the sector are almost exclusively backed by property, and there’s no real secondary market to clear distressed assets. As a result, NPLs have risen past 9% of total loans, up from 5.4% during 2023. The panel's word for the current business climate was "paralysis." Under normal conditions, Higgins said, the country should be seeing 6 or 7% annual growth.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (panel recommendations), Cambodia Investment Review (microfinance NPLs)

Chen Zhi's Empire Gets a House Call

Cambodian police hit buildings connected to jailed Chinese tycoon Chen Zhi on Saturday, nabbing 104 people of six nationalities and taking 800 mobile phones, more than a hundred computers, and what investigators said is “the hardware of a fake investment scheme” that’s been targeting victims worldwide. The same morning, a flight left Techo International Airport carrying 165 Chinese nationals who were deported in coordination with the Chinese Embassy, on orders from Deputy Prime Minister Sar Sokha. The two moves are some of the most aggressive against Chen's network since his arrest earlier this year, and come alongside other actions including a crackdown in which the gambling regulator has revoked at least eight casino licenses since April. You may be surprise to read, however, that no criminal charges have been announced against any casino owner.

Read more: SCMP (raid inventory), Khmer Times (deportation logistics), CamboJA News (casino license revocations)

Garment Workers Pay for their Commute in Blood

Two traffic accidents on Saturday left 14 Cambodian garment factory workers dead and 79 more injured. In Kampong Chhnang, a cargo truck slammed into an open-top truck that was ferrying workers to their factory, killing nine and injuring 44. In a separate incident, a bus veered off the road and overturned in a Svay Rieng accident that killed five and injured 35. Flatbed trucks are still a standard mode of transport to work, and they usually lack seatbelts (and sometimes don’t even have seats). The sector employs up to a million people on salaries of $200 to $300 a month and was responsible for more than $15.5 billion of exports last year.

Strait of Hormuz Hits the Paddy

Ou Puy, a 74-year-old farmer in Battambang's Brakieb village, has cut back his dry-season rice planting because his cost of fertilizer has nearly doubled. Across his 60-hectare rented plot, at five to six sacks per hectare, fertilizer alone could cost him as much as $15,000 that he just can’t afford. He has converted half of his land to higher-value jasmine rice, which needs less fertilizer but won't harvest until November (which is going to cut his expected output in half). Cambodia imported about $420 million of fertilizer last year, $26 million more than the year before.

Read more: CamboJA News

Hainan or Bust

International arrivals were down by almost half in Q1 to a hair north of one million visitors. Angkor Enterprise is reporting a 32 percent drop of foreign ticket sales. The government's answer is Tourism Minister Huot Hak, who spent the week of May 20-24 working through Hainan like a man with a quota to fill, signing MoUs with Haikou and Sanya, headlining a 150-person roadshow in Haikou, and promoting the four-month visa-free pilot for Chinese nationals that will run from June 15 to October 15. The target is to get half a million Chinese souls to show up this year, from last year’s 300,000 or so. EuroCham has put forward a proposal for 15-to-45-day visa-free access for European travelers; officials say they'll consider it after seeing how the China pilot goes.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (Sanya MoU), Travel and Tour World (EuroCham proposal), Khmer Times (decline causes), Travel and Tour World (Angkor revenue), Travel and Tour World (European arrivals baseline)

Photo by Ryan Chan on Unsplash

36 Months, $36 Million and an Oknha on Bail

About 250 plaintiffs came from all over Cambodia to show up at a Phnom Penh court on Wednesday where they demanded repayment from former oknha Hy Kimhong's Piphup Deimeas Investment in a fraud case that’s nearing its third year. Lawyers for the victims want $26 million in compensation plus about $10 million in moral damages, as well as prison terms of two to five years for Kimhong and 18 associates. Many complainants, most of them from Kampot province, took out bank and microfinance loans to invest and now find themselves unable to keep up with repayments. Kimhong was arrested in August 2023, charged with fraud, and released on bail two months later. A verdict is expected within 30 days.

Read more: CamboJA News

Kem Sokha's 60-Minute Furlough

Phnom Penh Municipal Court prosecutors let Kem Sokha out of house arrest for exactly an hour on May 20 to visit his ailing mother at a Borey compound. Interior Ministry officials went along for the ride. Co-defendant Pheng Heng posted 29 seconds of the reunion to Facebook, showing the former opposition leader stepping out of a police car to embrace his weakening mother. "Mom, you know that I have never persecuted anyone," he told her. Three weeks earlier, on April 30, the Court of Appeals upheld his 27-year sentence for conspiracy to commit crimes against humanity and added another five-year ban on his foreign travel.

Fake News! Says the Ministry

Cambodia's Defence Ministry dismissed Thai army claims of five more gunshots near Samraong town on May 22 as "false information and slander," the third denial in ten days. Earlier Thai reports alleged 11 shots near the O'Smach border checkpoint on May 13 and M79 grenades launched at Thai positions in Preah Vihear on May 14. Both of those claims were similarly rejected by Phnom Penh. Spokesperson Maly Socheata wants Bangkok to honor the fake-news cooperation clause in their December 27, 2025 joint ceasefire statement.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post ("incite confusion"), Cambodianess (ceasefire clause)

Beer and Bandwidth Pay the Bills

Cambodia's tax haul totaled $6.77 billion in 2025, beating targets on both branches of the collection apparatus. Customs ran 24.5% over budget and the General Department of Taxation doubled its domestic revenue target. Hun Manet gave out Letters of Appreciation to the top ten contributors, and the list is like a map of where formal-economy money moves: Viettel's Metfone at the top, Heineken second, Smart Axiata third, then Honda, ABA Bank, ACLEDA, Amret, KB Prasac, Cambrew, and JTI rounding out the list.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (top 10 taxpayers)

Phnom Penh Floats the Atom

Cambodia is openly weighing nuclear power, including small modular reactors, as an answer to an energy noose that keeps tightening. About two-thirds of total energy consumption depends on imports, and demand is climbing fast as the country continues to industrialize and urbanize. Installed capacity was reported at 5,044 MW in 2024, but coal, much of which is imported, still anchors generation.

One Lawyer, Ten Centuries of Missing Gods

A Harvard-trained expat from Connecticut who was running a small Phnom Penh firm read a 2012 op-ed about a DOJ case against Sotheby's over a looted 10th-century Khmer warrior statue, the Duryodhana, and decided to chase down the whole network. The five-foot sandstone figure had been set to headline Asia Week in New York before federal prosecutors intervened, saying that it was stolen property owed to the Cambodian people. Bradley Gordon knew nothing about the international artifact trade, but he'd taught English to Cambodian refugees in the late 1980s and had spent years awed by what the Khmer Rouge and other civil-war combatants had stripped from the temples. Read the whole tale - it’s a good one.

Cambodia 20260518

August Whitcraft — Mon, 18 May 2026 02:36:31 GMT

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Two Years in Uniform, Three Temples in Dispute

All 114 members of the National Assembly voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend mandatory military service from 18 months to two years, lower the conscription age ceiling from 30 to 25, and double peacetime jail terms for refusal to two years. “Wartime evasion” now means five years. Hun Manet told lawmakers that sovereignty was "being threatened" and that Cambodia needed troops who were "energized." Off the battlefield, the Culture Ministry sent another protest Saturday after a Thai subdistrict organization brought more than 200 dancers to Khnar Temple for a Buddhist ceremony “honoring Thai soldiers killed along the border.”

Read more: CNA (conscription penalties), Cambodianess (three temples), Khmer Times (200 dancers ceremony), Cambodianess (MoU termination, UNCLOS), CamboJA News (M79 denial, O'Smach)

Frozen Mansions Free Ministers

Mu Sochua was in Westminster putting the heat on the UK to move past asset freezes and to physically seize London properties tied to figures sanctioned over Cambodia's scam center networks. The 71-year-old opposition activist, in self-exile in the US since 2017, wants the proceeds made available to scam victims. The frozen portfolio already includes a £12 million mansion on Avenue Road and a £100 million office building on Fenchurch Street, as well as several flats, much of the property is held through British Virgin Islands shell corporations. She also reported that close family members of deputy prime minister Neth Savoeun reportedly own luxury London real estate that has (until now) dodged sanction. Not a single Cambodian government official has been sanctioned by the UK or US, despite an estimated 100,000 people forcibly working in the country's scam compounds.

Raids Big on Suspects and Light on Masterminds

Police raided scam compounds in several provinces, nabbing more than 150 people, as well as hundreds of mobile phones and computers from Prince Plaza along. The Phnom Penh office complex is connected to Prince Bank founder Chen Zhi, who was arrested and deported to China in January. The Tbong Khmum Provincial Court charged 40 suspects over the "7 House Condo" operation, but the alleged site owner, Xu Liang Cai, a Chinese national with Cambodian citizenship, has so far been able to stay at large on charges of organizing a cyber scam center and money laundering. The government says it has closed more than 250 scam locations and deported more than 13,000 people since July.

Read more: The Star (Prince Plaza seizures), Asian News Network (Xu Liang Cai fugitive), CamboJA News (masterminds uninvestigated)

Munna's Recruits Cost Two Grand Apiece

India's National Investigation Agency has charged five men with running a trafficking ring that brought young Indians to Cambodia with fake job offers before taking their passports on arrival and selling them to scam compounds for $2,000 to $3,000 a head. Alleged kingpin Anand Kumar Singh, alias Munna, is still on the run; three co-accused were picked up in February when they flew into Delhi from Cambodia. Workers who pushed back got electric shocks, forced confinement, and were denied food and water.

Read more: The Hindu (accused identities), Hindustan Times (Singh's sub-agents)

Sign Here and Stop Talking

Lom Sae, a representative of the Russey Srok Land Community in Preah Vihear, says Rovieng District police called him in on Wednesday and walked him through his options, which were to sign a document promising to stop organizing protests OR face a lawsuit from Global Green (Cambodia) Energy Development, a company tied to tycoon Try Pheap's network that has been clearing land farmed by more than 140 families since September. Sae decided to put pen to paper and signed. Police deny coercion.

Read more: CamboJA News (Licadho, Try Pheap sanctions), CamboJA News (Yang Sophorn dissent)

Phnom Penh Marks Down Its Forecast

Cambodia has cut its 2026 GDP growth forecast to 4.2% from 5.5%. Next year’s also going to be trimmed to 5% from the same starting point. Hun Manet's medium-term fiscal outlook puts the blame on Trump's tariffs, the border dispute with Thailand, and Middle East turmoil that’s promoting an energy crisis. Phnom Penh still foresees a rebound to 5.5%(-ish) growth for 2028 and 2029, provided that socio-economic activities return to what the document calls “pre-crisis conditions.”

Earning More but Worth Less

ACLEDA Bank's Q1 2026 net profit was $45.9 million, (up 7.2%), but its share price is 55% below where it sat at the 2020 IPO. The gap between earnings and market confidence is manifested in the bank’s NPL ratio, which is now 6.18% vs 5.5% a year ago. Impairment losses were $21.7 million vs $18.1 million a year earlier. Management plans to bring the ratio back below 6% by year-end. Total assets were reported to be $12.06 billion as of March 31.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Angkor Empties Out, Cargo Holds Fill Up

South Korean arrivals at Angkor Wat are down an astonishing 96 percent from pre-pandemic levels, and Malaysian visitors are. off 87 percent. Cambodia pulled in 5.57 million tourists in 2025, ~17% less than 2024, but revenue edged up 6.6 percent (to $3.878 billion) on higher-spending visitors. The government's response is a handful of pivots, from green-season marketing to ASEAN diplomacy. Air cargo through the three international airports was up more than a third in Q1, now 30,448 tons.

Read more: The Star (air passenger, cargo), Cambodia Investment Review (visa reform, $30M campaign), Khmer Times (green season campaign)

Pearl of Asia Gets a Glass-and-Steel Makeover

The $2 billion Foster + Partners airport that opened last October, with latticed ceilings nodding to traditional basketry and a satellite city-to-be connected to town by way of the newly christened Xi Jinping Boulevard, is an indication that Phnom Penh is being rebuilt for a different kind of traveler. The Shangri-La hotel has now joined the Rosewood in the city’s skyline. Cranes bristle over Koh Pich (which was swampland until the early 2000s), and Chinese-language investment banners now compete with gilded temple spires for street-corner real estate. The Vattanac Capital Tower was the tallest building in the country in 2022; a dozen new ones have topped it since. The French-colonial villas and art deco shop-fronts that earned the city its "Pearl of Asia" name keep coming down to make room for blocks of glass and steel. Progress?

Thai Sugar By Any Other Name

Kampot provincial governor Mao Thonin led a Wednesday raid on a workshop in Kampong Tnaot village where workers were pulling Thai-labeled sugar out of its original bags and resealing it into Vietnamese-labeled sacks, in an attempt to slip past Cambodia's consumer boycott of Thai products. Several tons were seized. Buyers found at the site have been ordered to give statements as investigators work backward to find out who was running the network.

Cambodia 20260511

August Whitcraft — Mon, 11 May 2026 02:18:49 GMT

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Handshakes in Cebu But Tents on the Border

Hun Manet and Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul met in Cebu on May 7 for their first direct talks since two rounds of fighting last year killed more than 100 people and displaced more than 300,000. Philippine President Marcos brokered the session on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit, and both leaders walked out with something they could call progress. Their foreign ministers have been tasked with confidence-building activities, and dormant border bodies (including the Joint Boundary Commission and General Border Committee) are being revived. Tens of thousands of people reportedly remain in displacement camps.

Read more: CamboJA News (Hun Manet), Media Selangor (Thai sovereignty stance), Cambodianess (ASEAN chair statement), Khmer Times (border mechanisms), Al Jazeera (displacement camp conditions)

Owns A Third But Knows Nothing

Hun To, a cousin of Prime Minister Hun Manet, confirmed on Wednesday that he was a 30% owner of US-sanctioned Huione Pay, but then explained why that shouldn't count. He says he never paid in his share capital, never attended shareholder meetings, never authorized proxies, and never received any profits, dividends, or assets. He was, by his own account, a 30% owner who owned nothing and did nothing. The company's former chairman, Li Xiong, who held 62% of Huione Pay and who Chinese authorities say was running a transnational gambling and fraud syndicate, was extradited to China last month after collecting more than $1 million in liquidation payouts. Hun To and co-director Yan Sathya got nothing, according to the liquidator's report. US authorities have tied the Huione Group to more than $4 billion in laundered funds. Organized crime researcher Lindsey Kennedy said Hun To has been listed as a director or shareholder of "countless criminally exposed companies" but doubted he would face any criminal investigation in Cambodia, "especially while his uncle […] is still alive."

Read more: CamboJA News (liquidation payouts), KTEN ($4B laundered)

No Deadline, No Passport, No Problem

Cambodia's anti-scam sweep hauled in 5,535 people from 48 spots in April, including 3,391 Chinese nationals, 726 Thais, and 461 Vietnamese. The government has clarified that Hun Manet's end-of-April deadline was a "rumor" and a "misinterpretation," and that the campaign will run until there are no scams left, a rather different kind of timeline. The arrest figures do not account for those who got rounded up but were never charged. The new anti-scam law, in force since early April, has so far been used to charge 64 organizers and coordinators, none of them, said Licadho's Am Sam Ath, among the officials who (allegedly) ran protection for the compounds.

Read more: The Star (stranded foreigners), CamboJA News (deadline clarification), Cambodianess (arrest breakdown)

Most of the Money, Most of the Questions

NGO Forum brought Chinese Embassy representatives, government officials, and affected communities into the same room in Phnom Penh on Thursday to talk through some of the points of friction that come with Chinese-backed projects. Chinese investors make up more than 70% of Cambodia's FDI and backed more than half of 2025's 630 approved projects, worth about $10 billion. A 2024 NGO Forum-commissioned survey found nearly 80% of Cambodian respondents were worried about whether Chinese firms follow local rules. In a different survey, the Asian Vision Institute polled 2,612 Cambodians between December 2025 and March 2026 and came back with a finding that 97.4% of them are “optimistic” about ties with Beijing and 99.7% saying that the relationship is important. Only seven respondents said the relationship wasn’t important. Xinhua gave the findings prominent play for their audience.

Read more: CamboJA News (NGO Forum), Xinhua (BRI project rankings), Khmer Times (fraud concerns)

Beijing Passport Gets Cambodian Welcome Mat

From June 15 to October 15, PRC passport holders (including Hong Kong and Macao) can get into Cambodia on a digital arrival card alone, 14 days free, multiple entries included. The window falls during China's peak summer travel season. Chinese visitors were more than 240,000 in Q1 ‘26, making China the top source market, after 1.2 million arrivals for all of 2025. The Cambodia-China Cultural Tourism Bridge Development Association met with Tourism Minister Huot Hak on May 7 to pitch joint promotion and "major investors" from China. PATA president Thourn Sinan said it’s "Cambodia's largest tourism trial initiative [ever]."

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (42% growth), Travel and Tour World (success metrics)

Koh Kong Loses Stalls and Patience

Environmental rangers destroyed 100 structures near the Damnak Kbon waterfall on Tuesday. The action will impact about 40 families who had built huts and run tourist stalls there since 2019. Two days later, more than 100 Koh Kong residents traveled by bus to Phnom Penh so that they could petition the Land Ministry. Some of them arrived with evidence of disputes that go back to 2007, when Heng Huy Agriculture Group (allegedly) cleared their rice fields to grow sugarcane. One petitioner said she sold her chickens and ducks to pay the bus fare. In 2023, ten residents from the same community were convicted of incitement and given one-year prison sentences AND fines totaling nearly $10,000 that was payable to Heng Huy. The Land Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Read more: CamboJA News (Adhoc land stats), CamboJA News (demolition tactics)

Flights from the Gulf and Free Rooms for Followers

Etihad Airways and Air Cambodia introduced a codeshare on May 6, connecting Abu Dhabi to Siem Reap via Phnom Penh on a single ticket and allowing for baggage to be checked through to a passenger’s final destination. The next day, Angkor Mansion & Residence said it would hand free rooms to influencers, vloggers, and content creators who were willing to photograph Siem Reap during the Green Season, a rainy stretch that traditionally has seen most tourists stay home. The hotel is running the campaign in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (Air Cambodia network), Travel and Tour World (sustainable tourism)

Phnom Penh Sweats the Hantavirus

Authorities are keen to let everyone know that they’ve tightened thermal scanning at Techo International Airport after the WHO flagged eight hantavirus cases, including three deaths, aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship that’s off the coast of West Africa. Health Ministry secretary of state Yuk Sambath took a look at the airport's health-control section on May 8, and confirmed that Teacho Santepheap Hospital has been designated for isolation and emergency treatment and the 115 hotline is ready and on standby. The hantavirus strain involved is reportedly the “Andes” variant, which is the only hantavirus known to pass between humans through close contact. WHO publicly says that the overall public health risk remains low for now.

Read more: VietnamPlus (CDC response teams), Cambodianess (Yuk Sambath role)

Another £1.6 Million for Mine Action

The UK is putting £1.6 million into another year of Cambodian mine clearance; the HALO Trust and MAG are aiming to clear about 890,000 square meters in Battambang, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, Pursat, Pailin and Koh Kong. APOPO's "Minefields to Ricefields" project will get a piece of the action too, with 3.4 million square meters earmarked for rehabilitation to the benefit of at least 500 farming families. Britain has now put about £65 million into the sector over more than three decades. The Cambodian government still has a planned deadline to clearing the remaining contamination by 2030.

Read more: Cambodianess (casualty toll), Cambodia Investment Review (education sessions)

Bring Back the Tigers For Cash

A paper in PARKS journal has put a number on a wild idea. Reintroducing tigers to Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains could reportedly pull in $5-7 million yearly in tourism revenue within a decade. Compare versus the $3.6 billion that Cambodia took in from visitors in 2024.

Cambodia 20260504

August Whitcraft — Mon, 04 May 2026 03:38:15 GMT

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Sokha's Sentence Sticks, Plus Five Years Grounded On Top

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeal upheld Kem Sokha's 27-year treason conviction on April 30, then obliged in going a step further when prosecutors asked for a heavier sentence, tacking on a five-year international travel ban that will begin after he finishes serving his time under house arrest. The 72-year-old's conviction rests on a 2013 speech he gave in a Melbourne suburb, in which he discussed election strategy advice from US-based pro-democracy groups, including a reference to the model that ousted Slobodan Milošević in Serbia. Condemnation came quickly. The US State Department said it was "troubled" by the ruling, UN High Commissioner Volker Türk said he was "deeply concerned," and embassies from the UK, Australia, and the EU, among others, weighed in. Sokha's lawyer Pheng Heng said he and his client have yet to decide whether to take a final appeal to the Supreme Court. In a separate case, Thel Thylen shouted “I need freedom of expression,” after his judge wrapped up by handing him a 22 month sentence. A Phnom Penh court convicted 37 activists Wednesday of incitement over social media posts criticizing the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area, a regional pact the government itself later scrapped. Judge Nhem Pisal gave Srun Srorn, Phoeng Sorphea, and San Seth the maximum two years apiece, plus fines of 4 million riel (about $1,000); the other 34 got between 18 months and two years. Only 14 defendants showed up for the verdict, with the rest convicted in absentia. Many had already spent nearly as long in pre-trial detention as the sentences they received.

Read more: AP News (incitement convictions), Straits Times (activists convicted), Human Rights Watch (2027-28 election legitimacy), CamboJA News (Australia, EU reactions), EFE (CNRP dissolution), CamboJA News (CLV-DTA Criticism Sentences)

Sunshine in the Survey but Years in the Cells

The Information Ministry celebrated World Press Freedom Day on May 3 with a survey finding more than four-fifths of 570 journalists found that the media environment should be rated “positively,” and PM Hun Manet called press freedom "a strategic capability for promoting information security." Civil society has… different numbers. CamboJA reported 61 violations against 57 journalists in 2025, plus 14 more cases from January to April 2026, including two reporters held in pre-trial detention and two sentenced to 14 years for supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense. RSF's yearly index moved Cambodia up 10 places to 151st of 180, but that’s still firmly parked in the "very serious" bracket alongside the world's least press-free states.

Read more: Cambodianess (RSF regional rankings), Cambodianess (LICADHO dissent), CamboJA News (environmental reporter safety), Cambodianess (Hun Manet framing), CamboJA News (press-card rules)

Poipet Gets a Cleanup, Right on Cue

Cambodian police raided a Poipet condominium on Saturday, finding nearly 4,700 mobile phones and more than 400 computer monitors in a building suspected of running scams targeting Thai citizens. They then deported about 600 nationals back across the border on Thursday. A second raid on Wednesday netted mostly Chinese nationals from another suspected compound in the same city. The first operation came two days after the US Treasury sanctioned Cambodian senator Kok An, whose Crown Resorts properties in Poipet, Washington alleges, have been converted into compounds running digital asset fraud and other scams. Thirty of the 635 Thais are still being processed by Cambodian authorities over alleged criminal offenses.

Growth Slips to 4.3, Deficits Double

AMRO's latest country assessment cuts Cambodia's 2026 growth forecast to 4.3 percent, down from an estimated 5.3 percent in 2025, with the current account deficit expected to more than double, from 3.6 to 8.5 percent of GDP. The drivers are nothing new, but they’re starting to pile up. Higher oil prices are pushing expected inflation to 3.9 percent, tourism is still weak, and remittances are dropping as migrant workers have departed from Thailand. Non-performing loans are above 8 percent, and recent bank liquidations have shaken confidence in the overall financial system. Public debt is still less than 30 percent of GDP, a bright spot that leaves the government a little room to move on targeted fiscal support.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Angkor Empties Out, Ministry Sells the Rain

Only 322,004 tourists passed through Angkor Archaeological Park between January and April, a number that’s down a third (along with revenue) when compared to the same stretch last year. April was the worst single month, with 51,093 visitors and $2.39 million in receipts. Angkor Tour Guide Association president Khiev Thy says the slide has been building since late 2025. The government's answer is to rebrand the problem. Tourism Minister Huot Hak launched the "Visit Cambodia in the Green Season" campaign on May 3, trying to reposition the monsoon months of May through October as a selling point rather than a deterrent, with discounted accommodation and packaged eco-tours. The five top source markets, the US, China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, all reported steep drops.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (airline cuts), Travel and Tour World (night visits), Travel and Tour World (eco-tour destinations), Khmer Times (2025 baseline), Travel and Tour World (Thim Sereyvuth mandate)

Fertilizer Bills Rise, Farmgate Won't Budge

The cost of imported fertilizer is up 25 to 30 percent, and that’s pushing Cambodian rice farmers toward the uncomfortable choice of eating the loss or switching to lower-input rainy-season varieties and quietly walking away from the export-grade crops that are the backbone of the Cambodian rice trade. Fuel is are piling up on top of the fertilizer issues. Industry groups want subsidies and duty cuts.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Payday Promises in Poipet

Nearly 700 workers found themselves outside locked gates Monday when ML Intimate Apparel locked its Poipet factory doors shut without warning. Hours of protest yielded a deal that should see wages paid in two phases on April 28 and May 28, with company assets transferred to the Labor Ministry for liquidation if the money doesn't arrive on schedule. Workers signed off on the deal, but confidence is thin on the ground. "I'm worried that when May 28 comes, they might find another reason not to pay," said Kim Tonich, a staff representative who says wage disputes had recently been a topic almost monthly. The economic zone he works in once held many factories, but now only one remains.

Read more: CamboJA News

Huione's Depositors Take It to the Doorstep

Dozens of Huione Pay customers came together outside the National Bank of Cambodia again hoping their same actions will lead to new results as they asked for for new news on funds tied up since the payment platform collapsed. The NBC still hasn't laid out any coherent plan for relief.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

The Central Bank Picks Its Shade of Green

The National Bank of Cambodia this month published a 110-page Lasting Finance Taxonomy, its first rulebook that sorts green finance into a traffic-light system, with green assigned to near net-zero activities like solar and electric mobility, amber for transitional projects that need to clean up by 2040, and red for the likes of coal. Version 1 deals with energy, transport, and buildings; follow-on editions are expected to add climate adaptation criteria. NBC Governor Chea Serey says the framework is scaffolding for Cambodia's 2050 carbon neutrality objective.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review

Tokyo Still Paying for Sihanoukville Pier

Hun Manet went to Preah Sihanouk province on Friday for the 30th anniversary of Japan's ODA to Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, using the occasion to ask Tokyo to keep the money flowing for the next round of expansion. A day earlier in Phnom Penh, Deputy PM Sun Chanthol met with JICA Executive Senior Vice President Miyazaki Katsura on the same general subject of infrastructure cooperation. Japanese Ambassador Ueno Atsushi was also on hand for Friday's ceremony.

Read more: Khmer Times (TEU targets, timeline), Khmer Times (JICA visit)

Treasury's Crime Desk Calls on the Central Bank

NBC Governor Chea Serey hosted Maida Furnia, who runs the US Treasury's Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes for Asia-Pacific, at the central bank's Phnom Penh headquarters on April 30. They reportedly discussed “closer coordination” on illicit financing and securities regulation.

Delhi's Soldiers Drop In on Kampong Speu

One hundred and twenty Indian Army troops, mostly from the Maratha Light Infantry Regiment, arrived at Camp Basil in Kampong Speu on May 4 for CINBAX-II, a two-week drill with 160 Royal Cambodian Army staff to practice counter-terrorism, drone operations, mortar handling, and sniper tactics. It's the second edition of the exercise.

Read more: Social News XYZ (UN Chapter VII), Deccan Chronicle (Maratha Light Infantry)

Gold Refinery Number Seven

K88 Industry opened the country's seventh gold refinery on April 22, a $40 million facility that sits on the Kampong Thom-Kratie border and employs 375 workers. Minister Keo Rottanak reported on the sector's five-year tally of nearly 18 metric tons of gold produced between 2021 and 2025, as well as more than $200 million in state revenue produced.

Cambodia 20260427

August Whitcraft — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 02:13:31 GMT

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Headlines:

Washington Names a Senator Phnom Penh Won't

Phnom Penh Counts the Bodies, Not the Bosses

Wang Yi Brings a Shopping List to Phnom Penh

Bangkok Rips Up the Gulf Deal

Class of 2026 Gets the Call

Phnom Penh's Finest, Now in the Dock

NBC Offers Apologies, Not Refunds

Washington Returns With a Smaller Check

Two-Thirds of Trade Now Rides on RCEP

Twenty Billion Dreams, Two Billion Reality

Washington Names a Senator Phnom Penh Won't

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Cambodian Senator Kok An and 28 associates on Thursday, accusing the Crown Resorts tycoon of running pig-butchering compounds out of his casinos in Poipet, Sihanoukville, and Bavet, where trafficked workers were reportedly beaten for missing daily contact quotas with American targets. OFAC made a claim on more than $700 million in cryptocurrency, took control of 503 domains, and named Heng Feng Cambodia Bank as well as his security conglomerate Anco Brothers. Thai police had already raided his border properties last July, taking $33.8 million in assets, and he now faces an arrest warrant there. Kok An is the second senator Washington has sanctioned for ties to the industry, after Ly Yong Phat in 2024. The Senate's spokesperson said Kok An has "immunity" as a sitting member, and that questions should be directed to U.S. authorities.

Read more: Bangkok Post (political shield angle), Unchained Crypto ($10B annual losses), PBS ($21B 2025 losses), CamboJA News (compound closures), OCCRP (Hun Sen ties)

Phnom Penh Counts the Bodies, Not the Bosses

The government released its tallies, and they're impressive on paper. More than 250 scam centers raided, 91 casinos shuttered, 13,039 foreigners deported from 33 nationalities since early 2025, and another 241,888 who read the room and left on their own steam between mid-January and mid-April. A new anti-scam law issued on April 6 adds teeth, offering life sentences for operators whose schemes result in a death. CENTRAL executive director Moeun Tola said "Without holding the masterminds accountable, these online scam networks cannot be destroyed."

Read more: Nation Thailand (Wang Yi meeting), Khaosod English ($19B GDP share), The Star (four working groups), CamboJA News (low-level targeting critique)

Wang Yi Brings a Shopping List to Phnom Penh

China sent both its foreign and defense ministers to Phnom Penh for the first meeting under a new "2+2" strategic dialogue, an idea Xi Jinping floated during his state visit last year. The format is going to be upgraded to "3+3" with the addition of Cambodia's Interior Ministry and China's Ministry of Public Security. Wang Yi used the trip to tell Hun Manet that scam centers must be "completely eradicated," a demand that’s now formalized along with growing law enforcement cooperation. Interestingly, Wang then brought a message to Bangkok, telling the Thai PM that Cambodia "no longer wants to fight." Cambodian-Sino trade was almost $20 billion last year, overwhelmingly in China's favor.

Read more: AP News (Ream Naval Base), Khaosod English (Thai PM), Arab News (scam center), Xinhua (Hun Sen meeting), CamboJA News (Cambodia-Thailand border)

Bangkok Rips Up the Gulf Deal

Thailand's National Security Council has confirmed that it scrapped the 2001 maritime MoU with Cambodia. The deal was how the countries had previously agreed to jointly tap hydrocarbons in their overlapping continental shelf claims in the Gulf of Thailand. The Thai PM announced the decision on Thursday, but it won’t go into effect until after cabinet review. The Royal Thai Navy's explanation is that too many years have passed without progress. Phnom Penh's Foreign Ministry called the unilateral Thai withdrawal "deeply regrettable," and said the agreement was the "genuine will and common interest" of both nations. Bangkok's preferred alternative is UNCLOS, a venue Cambodia has only recently joined.

Class of 2026 Gets the Call

The cabinet approved a new conscription law on Thursday that will see Cambodian males aged 18 to 25 to serve 24 months in the military. The new rules replace a 2006 law that has been unenforced for two decades. The upper age limit is down from 30, and the service expected is longer (from 18 months to 24). Hun Manet telegraphed the change last July as things started to heat up with Thailand. One independent monitor has already flagged the possibility of ghost soldiers on the existing payroll.

Read more: CamboJA News (socioeconomic disparities), Asian News Network (corruption warnings)

Phnom Penh's Finest, Now in the Dock

Cambodia's Anti-Corruption Unit referred Deputy Director-General of Immigration Uk Heisela and Phnom Penh Deputy Police Commissioner Sor Samnang to court on Wednesday over allegations of bribery tied to scam networks and money laundering. Pro-government outlet Fresh News named Samnang's wife and a man identified as Yat Kosal as additional suspects. Authorities say they have shut down hundreds of scam compounds this year, deported around 48,000 foreign workers from them, and opened cases against some 750 alleged ringleaders.

Read more: CamboJA News

NBC Offers Apologies, Not Refunds

About a hundred protesters, mostly Chinese, blocked the road outside the National Bank of Cambodia on Friday, some holding photos of Xi Jinping, after a third round of talks ended the same way as the first two did, with the NBC telling Huione Pay customers to sue somebody else. The central bank says Huione Pay and H-Pay are separate entities, which sidesteps the inconvenient detail that customers were told to migrate to H-Pay after Huione Pay ran out of funds. H-Pay's license was yanked on April 10, and liquidation now falls to Reachs & Partners, whose CEO told claimants the firm had only secured office premises the night before opening its doors. When customers asked whether holdings in USDT could be refunded, he told them to file their documents first, then added that "USDT is illegal."

Read more: CamboJA News

Washington Returns With a Smaller Check

The US and Cambodia signed a five-year, $36 million health deal on April 2, the first America First Global Health Strategy agreement in Asia, for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis programs. Washington is putting in more than $30 million; Phnom Penh is kicking in $5.3 million of its own. For context, last year's USAID purge killed 30 Cambodian projects and roughly $260 million in health, education and civil society funding. PSI Cambodia's Chi Socheat called the deal a "positive sign" but said nobody has told the NGOs that ran those programs for decades whether they will see any of the new money.

Read more: CamboJA News

Two-Thirds of Trade Now Rides on RCEP

Cambodia's first-quarter trade was $17.58 billion, up 18 percent year-on-year, and RCEP partners made up $11.26 billion, or almost two-thirds of the total. China, Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand lead the pack. The catch is that imports from RCEP countries rose 24.2 percent but exports only inched up 4.2 percent.

Twenty Billion Dreams, Two Billion Reality

Cambodia and Vietnam closed their 2026 Business Dialogue with visions of a $20 billion bilateral trade target and border checkpoints upgraded to international standards. The Q1 numbers tell a different story, however. Vietnam is already Cambodia's third-largest trading partner and fifth-largest investor, having 223 registered projects and nearly $3 billion in capital invested. The Phnom Penh dialogue, put together by the Vietnamese embassy and the Cambodia-Vietnam Business Association, brought together more than 200 delegates.

Cambodia 20260420

August Whitcraft — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 02:39:46 GMT

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Headlines:

Hun Sen Offers Critics a Rifle

Ream Gets Its First Ship With Teeth

American Carts, Chinese Capital

IMF Says 4%, Economists Say 3%, Pump Says Relief

Beijing Pours a Billion Into Koh Kong's Hills

Sihanoukville's Shells Get Squatters, Not Investors

First Project Bond Takes Home the Hardware

Erection for the Rat Who Outworked the Sappers

Hun Sen Offers Critics a Rifle

Cambodia's Foreign Ministry filed a formal sovereignty protest, claiming Thai military construction is taking place in three border provinces, including an observation post in Preah Vihear and bunkers in Oddar Meanchey. Phnom Penh said the activity is a push to consolidate what it termed "illegal occupation," a phrase that doesn't leave much room for quiet diplomacy. Senate President Hun Sen spent part of Khmer New Year on the back foot, releasing a voice clip after Australia-based analyst Seng Sary called his wounded-little-finger metaphor an insult to Khmer ancestors and fallen soldiers. Hun Sen's counter was that the only alternative to negotiation is the "hard way" of military confrontation, and he invited Sary to come home and join the front line if that's his preference.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (locations), Nation Thailand (Thai rebuttal), Cambodianess (border blame), Cambodianess (quotes)

Ream Gets Its First Ship With Teeth

Hull number 622, a Type 056C corvette, pulled in to Ream Naval Base on April 4 and was formally handed over four days later, giving the Royal Cambodian Navy its first surface combatant capable of carrying missiles. The vessel is also bigger than the one that China keeps for itself, as satellite imagery puts the hull at roughly 95 meters, about five meters longer than the standard Type 056 variants used by the PLA Navy. Beijing is transferring this ship and a second corvette due in June as grant aid, not a sale. Until April, the Cambodian navy ran on small patrol craft.

Read more: Army Recognition (specs), Janes (hull comparison)

American Export Tops, Chinese Capital Growing

Cambodia's US-bound exports were $3.36 billion in Q1, up 38.4% year-on-year, raising the bilateral trade surplus to $3.23 billion as American buyers front-loaded orders at a pace that made the tariff headlines feel almost abstract. Exports for the quarter were $8.09 billion, with the usual trio of garments, footwear and travel goods sectors leading with $3.75 billion of that. That’s 46 cents of every export dollar. Japan trade grew at a more gentlemanly pace of 14.8% to $753 million. Behind those numbers, China put $1.169 billion into the country in Q1, nearly half of all registered investment capital.

Read more: The Star (deficit), Khmer Times (RCEP), Khmer Times (categories), Khmer Times (China investment)

IMF Says 4%, Economists Say 3%, Pump Says Relief

Five economists at an IBC lunch walked out with a number the IMF won't touch, calling for 3% GDP growth though 2026, down from earlier forecasts above 5%, as rising diesel and LPG costs flow through logistics, hospitality, and manufacturing. The IMF, presenting its Regional Economic Outlook in Washington, kept its Cambodia forecast steady at 4%, even as its own Asia and Pacific director reminded everyone that the region's oil and gas consumption is nearly 4% of GDP, almost double Europe's. Some relief arrived Friday, as Iran reopened the Strait (they later reversed course) and the Commerce Ministry cut diesel prices by 10.9% to 5,700 riels per liter, and bringing gasoline down 2.9% to 4,950 riels.
The government has been running roughly $50 million a month in fuel subsidies via reduced import duties on oil, gas, and a grab bag of EVs and stoves.

Read more: The Star (prices), Cambodia Investment Review (economist views), Khmer Times (regional)

Beijing Pours a Billion Into Koh Kong's Hills

Construction started on the Upper Tatay pumped-storage hydropower station in Koh Kong province, a $1 billion, 1-gigawatt project run by state-owned China National Heavy Machinery Corporation and expected to finish by 2029. The plant is designed to use intermittent solar and wind energy to fill the station and release water (and therefore produce electricity) on demand, solving the grid-stability problem that renewables are (in)famous for.

Sihanoukville Shells Get Squatters, Not Investors

Months after the late-2025 scam crackdown pushed out another wave of Chinese workers (and capital), Sihanoukville's unfinished high-rises are still empty, their ground floors taken over by vendors and laborers who've turned the space into makeshift homes. Landowner Sar Muywang, who leased her family's plot to a Chinese developer for a nine-story residential building in 2019, says they'd finish the project themselves if they could afford it. A government recovery program now extended to 2027 keeps promoting investor incentives to an audience that isn't listening.

Read more: CamboJA News (recovery program), CamboJA News (Prince Group), Asian News Network (Mondulkiri raid)

First Project Bond Takes Home the Hardware

The SchneiTec Dynamic Green Project Bond, issued in March 2025 to finance a 60MW solar plant in Kampong Chhnang, picked up two prizes at the 2026 Environmental Finance Lasting Debt Awards, for Green Bond Structure Innovation (Asia-Pacific) and Green Project Bond. The KHR196.64 billion ($49 million) deal, listed on the Cambodia Securities Exchange and backed by a credit guarantee from the ADB-affiliated CGIF, runs on a 20-year power purchase agreement with Electricite du Cambodge and is now the country’s longest-tenor corporate bond at 15 years.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (investor detail), Khmer Times (emissions data)

Erection for the Rat Who Outworked the Sappers

Cambodia has erected the world's first statue of a landmine-detecting rat, honoring Magawa, an African giant pouched rat who sniffed out 100 mines and cleared 141,000 square meters of contaminated land before dying shortly after his retirement in 2022. Bred in Tanzania and trained by Belgian charity Apopo (you MUST go see their visitor center in Siem Riep if you have a chance), he was ableto sweep a tennis-court-sized patch in 20 minutes, work that would take a human with a metal detector days.